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A Mesa County parcel received the highest per-acre bid Thursday in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s quarterly oil and gas lease sale in Colorado.

Axia Energy of Denver bid $1,090 per acre for 157 acres north of Collbran.

The highest total amount bid on any parcel was $501,380, or $212 an acre, by Lonetree Energy of Denver, for 2,364 acres in the Kimball Creek area in western Garfield County northwest of De Beque.

Altogether, the BLM offered leases for 14 parcels and sold all 14. It sold leases to 9,769 acres for a total of $2,038,560, or an average of $207 per acre. Forty-nine percent of those proceeds go to the state. The rest goes to the federal government.

The BLM originally was offering more than 12,000 acres, but the amount was reduced because of public protests or questions raised during internal review by the agency, BLM spokesman Jim Sample said.

The BLM’s Grand Junction Field Office deferred leasing on several parcels in the De Beque area to further consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding protection of the Colorado hookless cactus, federally designated as a threatened species.

Genesis Gas and Oil Colorado LLC of Kansas City, Mo., paid $115 an acre for two, 1,278-acre parcels in northwestern Rio Blanco County. Contex Energy Co. of Denver paid $280 an acre for 1,440 acres in the north-central part of the county.

Robert L. Bayless, Producer, LLC, of Denver won a 60-acre parcel for $12 an acre and a 573-acre parcel for $22 an acre on the county’s western border.

Baseline Minerals Inc., a Denver company that leases minerals on behalf of other clients, acquired a 670-acre parcel west of Paonia Reservoir in Gunnison County for $170 an acre, and a nearby, 120-acre parcel for $150 an acre.